Scotland County festival makes TV debut

LAURINBURG — Scotland County’s annual festival filled with plaid, kilts, sheepdogs, heavy athletics — and, of course, much celebration of Scottish heritage — has been featured on a segment of UNC-TV called “North Carolina Now.”

Producer Maria Lundberg visited this year’s Highland Games and took extensive footage and conducted interviews with athletes and performers. The segment aired Wednesday, but can be viewed on the show’s website.

To view the footage, visit http://video.unctv.org/video/2365141880/ and skip ahead to the 9:21 mark.

“It is a great presentation of the games and also the people we have in the county,” said Cory Hughes, executive director of the Scotland County Tourism Development Authority.

According to Hughes, the footage will air again in the weeks before the 2014 festival, which will help spread the word about the festival that already draws thousands from all parts of the county.

“I think certainly it will have an impact on next year’s games,” Hughes said, “… hopefully it also gets folks in Laurinburg to get reacquainted with the festivals in town.”

Scotland County’s Highland Games is described on the UNC website as the county’s largest tourism event and one of the youngest established Highland Games in North Carolina.